


hogwarts.exe

by flyingsilverspork



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Artificial Intelligence, Black Family, Coma, Computer Programming, Future, Gay, London, Muggle Life, Muggles, Multi, Neurology & Neuroscience, Technology, Virtual Reality, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 18:56:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15177140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingsilverspork/pseuds/flyingsilverspork
Summary: In 2028, a small research team funded by the technology company House of Black succeed in forming neural linkage between themselves and the comatosed Remus Lupin, developing an online world where computer codes and commands are controlled for by spells and the limits of reality can be questioned and broken.Friendships will form along the way and the research team and their patient will be brought closer to one another than they could have ever expected.





	1. The Grind

Remus woke to migraines again. Last night’s fever dream had been rough but he couldn't quite grasp what had happened; the dream had left him as elusively as it had came.

Getting out of bed and reaching for his glass of water, Remus saw a dense fog which enveloped the entire cottage, so thick he could make out nothing past the window pane. The house was silent; he was alone again. He assumed that his parents had already left for work and would be returning late that evening. 

After making himself an ample amount of jam on toast, he passed through to the cottage’s small library. Using the word “library” was generous to say the least. It was a small room with three bookshelves covering the walls, a small reading chair in the middle, and a large window which let in enough light to illuminate the pages of a book. Today, he picked Robert Heinlein's “They” from the bookshelf. 

Hours passed and Remus’ migraines grew worse. He wasn’t sure how late it was before he put down his book, heated a tin of soup and headed to bed. As he drifted into sleep strange sounds and shapes entered his thoughts: a bright white light, the sound of metronomic humming, the mutterings of strangers. 

When he woke the next day, the dreams grew distant and more was forgotten, the cottage was enveloped in fog, the toast and jam were ready, the library offered new books, and the day progressed uneventfully… as did the next, and the next, and the next. 

* 

Sirius Black woke to a migraine also, and like Remus Lupin’s migraine, this felt familiar also. A hangover. 

The previous night was a blur of names, faces, and places. _House of Black_ ’s new VR console release was a big event, perhaps the biggest technology event this year. Sirius, of course, was not given a public role in the Black technology event but was present, fulfilling all family expectation of him and maintaining the public facade that the Black family were stable and secure. 

The alarm was going off and, looking at the time, had been going off for the past half-hour. Slamming his fist down on the buzzing clock, he took a moment to adjust his sore eyes to the morning light in his bedroom, no, somebody else’s bedroom. The room was littered with half naked models, most sleeping, some rubbing their foreheads, attempting to relieve the pains of whatever hangover or comedown they were dealing with. 

After locating his clothes from around the room (black skinny jeans, black leather boots, a black silk shirt and a black leather jacket), Sirius stumbled out of the apartment and checked his phone. _Shit_. He was late for “work”. He had a habit of using mental quotation marks whenever “work” crossed his mind. Sirius didn’t have a “job”, this was his condemnation, a distraction devised by his family, forcing him to work in small, quiet, private areas of the company, away from prying eyes. 

The hospital was on the opposite side to London from him and, after briefly imagining the thought of public transport in such a nauseous state, decided to Uber into work. Aggravated by the hangover and distaste for his job, he spent the ride devising passive aggressive emails to House of Black’s resources department, asking them to give the hospital’s project staff new VR equipment, meaning he wouldn’t need to leave his own home to attend meetings with Dr McGonagall and her barely qualified staff. 

* 

Remus was finishing the second part of “Nineteen-Eighty Four” when he heard an ear splitting crack followed by a knock at the door. Visitors were unusual at the Lupin’s cottage at the best of times due to the seclusion of the home in the Welsh countryside, however, with the fog outside being so dense, he had no idea how a visitor would even have been able to find the house. 

‘One moment!’ Remus stumbled out of his reading chair and brushed toast crumbs from his woollen jumper while making his way to the front door. When he opened it, he was surprised to find a beautiful young woman. 

The girl wore blue ripped skinny jeans juxtaposed by a white blouse and pink overcoat. She didn’t respond immediately, spending a moment to gaze over the small cottage before turning to face Remus. Her eyes were emerald and her hair was shimmering red. 

‘Can I help you?’ Remus stuttered, slightly confused by her unannounced presence and feeling the usual social anxiety which came with greeting new people. The girl’s eyes widened and she smiled, which Remus also took as somewhat unsettling. 

‘Lily Evans, very pleased to finally meet you,’ she said, reaching out a hand, which Remus shook. She held his and softly at first, then tensed her grip, and then shook vigorously. Remus felt more anxiety rear inside him at reaction to her odd behaviours. ‘So,’ she continued, ‘how long did this place take to make? It’s beautiful, really, I’ve never seen anything like this?’ Her eyes left him and returned to gazing at the Lupin’s cottage. 

‘Thanks, I guess,’ Remus mumbled, attempting to block out his migraine and understand the situation better. ‘My parents moved here before I was born, I’m just home for Christmas break.’ 

‘You’re on… Christmas break?’ The girl’s attention returned to Remus, eyebrows furrowing. 

‘Yes, I’m an English and Philosophy student at the University of York, third year.’ As Remus spoke, her expression changed from confusion to shock, eyebrows rising and mouth opening to let out a gasp, before she took a deep breath and regained composure. 

‘Oh… yes, of course!’ She narrowed her eyes and Remus had a feeling that her main interest had changed from the cottage to himself. The girl must have shortly realised that she had been staring and quickly looked away. ‘I’m really sorry, I have to leave now. Would you mind if I came back here and visited you some time soon?’ 

‘I wouldn’t mind that at all,’ Remus found himself saying, despite the feelings of uncertainty he felt. There was some wave of raw emotion that washed over him, the feeling of loneliness, of being isolated. The girl’s lip curled, giving him a smile and he felt somewhat better, warmer inside. 

‘Thank you. I’ll see you soon, Mr Lupin.’ And like that, the girl turned and walked into the fog, another loud crack coming from the distance. 

‘Are you okay!?’ Remus shouted into the mist, to which replied only silence. He waited for some time at the door waiting for her to return to ask for directions or even just for the sound of footsteps leading away but there was nothing - dead silence. 

Reentering his home and returning to his novel, Remus played the strange situation over and over in his head on a loop. He had been certain they’d only shared a few words but he had enjoyed the company, the presence of another person. Along with this thought was another, one far stranger. On leaving him, she had said his name, “see you soon, Mr Lupin,” the only problem with that was… he never told her his name. 

*

The taxi across London hadn’t improved Sirius’s mood, only fuelling the existing nausea and aggravation he felt. Hashim, his Uber driver, had been far too enthusiastic for a Monday morning, making multiple attempts at small talk, playing obnoxious grime music, and finally, attempting to give Sirius a link to his mix tape on Soundcloud. 

‘Ah, Mr Black,’ said Dr McGonagall, peering over her thin reading glasses. ‘We’d been waiting for you to arrive before beginning today’s conference. Perhaps rather than investing in VR, you should invest in a pocket watch? At least that way you would make it on time for scheduled meetings.’ 

‘A pleasure as always, Doctor,’ said Sirius, making his way to the empty chair at the far end of the conference room and preparing to drift into daydreams while his subordinated decided how they were going to waste their time. 

McGonagall led today’s meeting; she was a stern woman dressed in an emerald green lab coat. McGonagall had been one of the most devoted and praised neurologists in Scotland by the age of 30, by 40 she had published several academic papers regarding neural linkages and consciousness, and by 50 she was being flown across the globe to give lengthy lectures in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, and her favourite, Edinburgh. Now, contracted and confined to House of Black’s research and development team, she existed in a small ward, lost in central London, working wirily and restlessly on her next goal. 

The severe-looking doctor stood in front of the group, looking over the table and gaining undivided attention from each member of the team’s small task force, including even Sirius himself. Her thin lips gave a sly smile and she announced the four words she, and the task force, had been waiting to hear for almost six months now.

‘We have made contact.’ 


	2. Deep-dive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius is updated on the team's work and Lily recounts her first dive using the neurolink.

Sirius’s eyes widened and he felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

‘What do you mean, we’ve made contact?’ Sirius stared dead into McGonagall’s eyes. She was smiling… smiling in his direction. For the six months Sirius had known the woman, he had never once seen her smile towards him. Sure, he had seen her smile, when working with the AI or in conversation with the psychologist, but never directly at himself. 

‘I spoke to Remus… Mr Lupin, this morning, first attempt of the day,’ said the psychologist. She spoke quickly and excitedly, smiling and blushing like she’d just been introduced to a puppy. 

Sirius had always thought that the psychologist was out of place working in the dull and gloomy hospital ward. Perhaps she did bring an element of joy to the workplace, like a breath of fresh air, always making pleasant chat with Dr McGonagall and even giving the two tech boys the time of day. 

‘You… spoke? Actually had a conversation with…’ Sirius stuttered. 

‘He was in a house, his parents’ cottage, actually,’ said the psychologist. She was smiling still, but not at Sirius; his disconnect from the team he was supervising was always hinted at through these subtle gestures and terms or phrase… not that he cared, of course. Either way, updates on the project were more important than Sirius’s opinion on what his subordinates thought of him. 

‘But that’s impossible? That’s fucking impossible!’ Sirius’s heart pounded and he could feel pulses of adrenaline course through his bloodstream. ‘But that sort of tech’s ten years… twenty years off? This is science-fucking-fiction!’ 

‘I’m flattered by the amount of faith you placed in your specialist team, Mr Black.’ McGonagall’s lips thinned for a short moment of sarcasm before the smile returned. The smile of relief, that her life’s work had not been for nothing, that she would not spend the remaining years of her life contracted to finish this seemingly impossible task. With the latest developments reported by Miss Evans, this work would be her magnum opus. 

Sirius had similarly believed that he had been given an impossible task, a fool’s errand. He had been so certain that he’d been condemned with leading this underfunded and unrepresented task-force within House of Black’s research department to keep him out of the way, out of sight and out of mind; punishment for his actions as director of the research department, a position now held by another. 

‘I want a demonstration. Now.’ 

‘I’ll have miss Evans prepare herself for the next dive as soon as the system allows,’ said McGonagall, itching to display the accumulation of her life’s work. 

*

Lily Evans stood in the women’s toilets splashing water over her face from the room’s only functioning sink. She stared into her reflection in the mirror on the wall and saw how pale she’d become. Although the excitement of making contact had blushed her cheeks temporarily, she was always white as a ghost after finishing a dive. 

She could remember the first dive she had ever attempted, only a month after the project began. Dr McGonagall had told her that attempting a dive this early in the project would be entirely unsuccessful and ultimately meaningless to the project as a whole but she had been so eager to impress… or at least that’s what she told herself. While it was true that Lily had been keen to show her worth to her coworkers, the real reason she wanted to get the first dive out of the way was to overcome the fear of entering the unknown; ripping off the band-aid, as she heard from American television. Neural linkage had never been attempted before by humans and Dr McGonagall had been funded by House of Black to attempt it, even though most reputable sources argued that linkage was at least another fifteen years away. 

The first dive was perhaps the most terrified Lily had ever been in her life, Dr McGonagall had tried to talk her out of it numerous times in the proceeding week but was ultimately unsuccessful. She could remember lying down to enter the neurolink machine, a frankly terrifying device Dr McGonagall had created in the body of an old MRI machine. The difference with this machine was the neckpiece, a metal protrusion from the MRI’s bed which worked to block out any motor functions from the brain to the body while attempting to maintain the circulatory and pulmonary systems needed to keep her alive. 

‘We’re only putting you under for 2 minutes, there’s nothing to worry about,’ said the software engineer, Jay Potter, or James, as she referred to him. Technically there was no reason for James to be in this room with her rather than outside making final system checks while the doctor took her vitals but he always made an effort to speak to Lily. Perhaps he wanted the two of them the become friends, or perhaps he was just looking for entertainment in such a solitary job. ‘It’s just 2 minutes and then we’re pulling you out.’ 

‘I know, thanks James,’ she had said, breathing deeply to control her nerves. 

‘Sometime today please, Miss Evans,’ said a somewhat unfamiliar voice. She had only heard the voice a few times after a month of working on the project and she imagined she’d heard his voice more times on the news, or before that even, during streamed developer conferences by House of Black. Their boss, Sirius Black. 

‘If you would excuse us, Mr Black, Miss Evans is working phenomenally and it is of our utmost importance to maintain her calm composure for greater stability during the link,’ said Dr McGonagall, the only one to ever display her authority to their superior. 

‘Well, we all have places to be, doctor,’ Sirius had said. _No, you have places to be_ , Lily had thought, knowing that after the dive the team would be working on analysing the dive’s data. 

After ten minutes, Lily was ready and waiting for the dive to begin. 

‘The dive will last 2 minutes, Miss Evans. Please give me a sign that you’re ready to begin,’ came the muffled voice of Dr McGonagall from the next room, the team watching her through a small window. She gave a thumbs up outside the machine. ‘Neurolink dive number 001 via host MR, 4th of September, 2027. Commencing in 5… 4… 3… 2…’ 

After that Lily had an experience like no other. She felt as if she was paralysed, unable to move her body… or perhaps as if she had no body at all. The only sensation she had was as if she were driftwood in a tempest at sea, or as though she existed within static. She felt as though she was lost in space, hurtling through a dense nebula at light speed, spinning with no body as reference to where she was. The only thing that was certain was an undivided sense of consciousness. Unable to truly process her existence here, she decided to count.

‘1… 2… 3… 4…’ She couldn’t tell whether she was actually making any noise, or if she even had a mouth or lungs to do so here. _Only 2 minutes_ , she told herself, _just 2 minutes._

’120... 121... 122... 123... ’ The counting continued. If she could have cried then she would have. In such an unnatural place and state, all she could do was count to stay sane. 

‘459… 460… 461…’ Then… nothing. 

When she woke up she was in the main hospital building, the noise of nurses wheeling beds and patients talking to their family brought her back to reality. Here she had a body, eyelids, lungs… 

‘I think she’s awake,’ came James’s voice from somewhere nearby. ‘Lily? Lily!’ 

‘Mr Potter, could you please refrain from shouting at Miss Evans?’ Dr McGonagall had said, her voice stern but with a worried, concerned tone. 

‘Did… did something go wrong?’ Lily said, surprised by the weakness in her voice. 

‘The dive went exactly as planned…’ 

‘But then you didn’t wake up,’ said James, interrupting the doctor. 

‘But… I was… I was down for 8 minutes?’ Lily stuttered. 

‘The dive only lasted 120 seconds…’ James mumbled, confused. 

‘My god…’ McGonagall had murmured. 

It was during this first dive that the team discovered that, without having to input sensory information from the body, the human mind will work at a rate four times faster than it would do otherwise. The team also discovered that there were flaws in their neurolink technology, flaws they would spend the next six months attempting to fix. 

No dive since had been as horrific as the original dive. Over the next five months of development, the dives slowly improved. Slowly, the spinning stopped, her sense of a body returned, and the static died down, although contact had never been made until today, dive #062 via host RL. 

‘Lily, are you quite alright?’ Came the voice of Dr McGonagall and quickly Lily came back to reality, back to the present. She was still standing in front of the toilet mirror. 

‘Sorry, Dr McGonagall, I’ll be ready for the dive shortly.’

Lily, how many times will I have to ask you? Please, call me Minerva,’ the doctor said, giving Lily a warm and reassuring smile. 

‘Sorry Dr… Minerva…’ Lily smiled back; she felt ready for this next dive, ready to speak more to Remus Lupin. 


End file.
